Jewish G.I. Tales in New Museum Wing

 by Ronald Drenger

“This is not an exhibition about World War II,” said Bonnie Gurewitsch, one of the curators of the inaugural show in the new wing at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. “It’s about the human experience of World War II. We wanted to make it feel like your grandpa or your Uncle Joe is telling you his story.”

Aryeh Lev, center, head chaplain of the National Jewish

“Ours To Fight For: American Jews in the Second World War,” which opens at the Battery Park City museum on Nov. 11, looks at the role of Jewish men and women who fought overseas or joined the war effort at home. And it tells the story through the eyes of those who were there.

At the heart of the exhibition are video and audio clips and quotes culled from more than 400 interviews the museum conducted around the country with those men and women. Letters, photographs, archival footage and hundreds of artifacts—a mess kit, a flak jacket, a flamethrower, a small bible—help bring the reminiscences to life.
The central section of the exhibition focuses on the experiences of soldiers, pilots, sailors and marines. Many of their stories could be told by any Uncle Joe, Jewish or non-Jewish: what it was like to fly on a bombing mission, fight in the trenches, go behind enemy lines, lose a buddy or win a key battle.

But the veterans also talk about experiences and emotions tied to their Jewish identity—trying to observe religious rituals in the field, encountering anti-semitism, questioning their faith.

One Army sergeant describes celebrating the beginning of the Sabbath with a candle-lighting, in a foxhole:

“I dug a hole on the side and put the candle in the C-ration can and lit the candle and pushed it way back in the hole so snipers couldn’t see it and took my salami and wine my mother sent in a medicine bottle and I’d have my Shabbat meal.”

The exhibition examines the path that recruits took from leaving home through military training; the experiences of soldiers who entered the concentration camps; life on the home front; and impacts on postwar Jewish life in the United States.

As the exhibition makes clear, the importance of their Jewish identity varied greatly among these soldiers. For some it was crucial, for others a mere footnote. The war strengthened the faith of some and weakened it in others.

In one gallery, visitors will see interviews with soldiers of other minorities who served in World War II, as well as with Jews who served with America’s allies.

“Ours To Fight For” opens Nov. 11 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Pl. Admission: $7 adults; $5 seniors and students. Call 646-437-4200 or go to www.mjhnyc.org.

Gallery, Theater, Café in New Wing

The Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust opened its $60 million, 82,000-square-foot extension in September, six years after the original building, with its distinctive hexagonal shape and ziggurat roof, opened its doors.
PFC Stanley Meyerson sent a Passover V-mail to his parents from India on March 30, 1945.

In addition to a 6,500-square foot exhibition space, the new Robert M. Morgenthau Wing, named after the Manhattan district attorney and the longtime chairman of the museum, includes a 375-seat auditorium, an outdoor memorial garden designed by artist Andy Goldsworthy, a 100-seat kosher café, Abigael’s at the Museum, an event hall and classrooms.

Goldsworthy’s “Garden of Stones” features 18 hollowed-out boulders, with a dwarf oak sapling planted in a hole at the top of each one. The trees seem to grow out of the stone, symbolizing the tenacity of life.

The public can visit the memorial garden and café withough paying museum admission.

The four-story extension was designed by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates, architects of the original building.

The museum’s permanent exhibition, on Jewish life before, during and after the Holocaust, remains in the museum’s original, 30,000-square foot building.